Hot Glue & Watercolor Fall Leaves

I have wanted to use this technique to make fall leaves for ages but my son who was old enough to try it had zero interest. So I waited…and waited…until I thought my daughter who likes to push the rules ( no clue where she gets that…) was old enough to  listen to my warnings about not touching the tip of the glue gun. This is so much more than a fall craft or art project, while we painted we talked about why leaves have veins, what they do, and then after popped outside to find leaves that looked like the ones we made. Don’t miss the book after the craft – it’s a perfect match for this activity.

Gather your materials. You will need some watercolors, watercolor paper, a glue gun, a pencil, scissors, and paintbrush.

Start by drawing leaves on your watercolor paper.

Next add the veins – draw them on with hot glue. My daughter was a lot more careful than I expected her to be, so much so that she wanted me to help her. This was the best picture I could muster with one hand.

I added it to mine too.

Time to paint. The water color won’t color the glue and you get an awesome resist effect. She took her time and watched her. Do you ever just get lost watching your kids? Maybe it’s because she is off at full day kindergarten but I am finding myself staring at her and soaking it in more these days.

She chose to make her leaf red and purple and I did a mash-up of all sorts of colors. I love talking about choices, but don’t push it.

After we were done painting, we cut them out  along the lines that we drew.

Voila – we have beautiful leaves.

Books About Leaves

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I have a whole book list for books about fall leaves, but this new book by Monica Wellington didn’t arrive in time to be included. Very rarely do I review books sent to me by the publishers because I like to choose books based on my activities but I always say yes when it’s Monica Wellington because I adore her books.

My Leaf Book  by Monica Wellington is a little book with a BUNCH of information about leaves and why they change. Readers follow a little girl as she walks through an arboretum and collects leaves for her leaf book. What I always enjoy about Wellington’s books is that you can share them with your youngest children because the illustrations alone will enchant, but you can also share them with much older children. My 8-year-old was interested in the little breakout bits of information about leaves and trees. Did you know that the Gingko tree has been around for more than a million years? If you read this book you would!

Here are even more books about Fall Leaves to check out! Click on the image for the full list with reviews of each book.